Reisetbauer Distillers Choice, 7-year-old Austrian Single Malt / 43%/ 0.7l

Reisetbauer Distillery, based near Linz in northern Austria, has been in operation since 1994.

Its owner, Hans Reisetbauer, initially distilled brandy and fruit schnapps, and began producing whisky a year later. The plant is equipped with five tiny stills and around 20,000 litres of distillate per year is used to produce whisky. Reisetbauer grows his own barley, and uses Chardonnay and Trockenbeerenauslese barrels from the Kracher and Velich vineyards for maturation. (Trockenbeerenauslese is an expensive dessert wine produced, like Tokaji, from grapes infected with noble rot). The Reisetbauer Distillers Choice presented here, the core of the company's core offering, is aged for seven years and bottled at 43% abv.

Nose: summer meadow, apples, pears, fennel, dried dill, vanilla, roasted nuts, grappa and traces of forest floor.

Taste: apple pie sprinkled with cinnamon, peaches, vanilla, caramel, green tea, white pepper, cloves and a light bitterness of oak.

Finish: medium long, with notes of summer fruits, roasted nuts, vanilla, cinnamon, cloves and oak.